we're back atur regular time later tonight, with a man who has strong opinions. penn jillette. he's well known for his opinions and slight of hand. the last time for us, things got a little heated. that's all for us. good night or good morning, depending on where you are in the united states. governor clinton is now president bill clinton. >> too close to call. >> here it is, george w. bush re-elected. >> barack obama president of the united states. a one-two punch tonight, in the republican presidential race. >> you can almost hear the huge sigh of relief out of the romney campaign right now. >> mitt romney pulled out a hard fought win.

in michigan and arizona, he's the voters' choice. >> thank you. >> it's a double blow to rick santorum and his place as the leader of the pack. two front-runners in their most intense and personal battle yet, and the competition is only getting tougher. the biggest single day of the primary season, super tuesday is just one week away. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in the cnn election center. mitt romney says he didn't win the primary in michigan by a lot, but he did win and he says that's enough. his victory tonight in michigan and in arizona should give him some badly needed political momentum heading into the big super tuesday blockbuster next

week. if he had lost michigan tonight, it would have been a huge blow in his race for the white house. let's take a look at some of the numbers that we have right now. we have projected he's the winner in michigan as well as in arizona. in michigan, most of the vote has been counted. so far, 41% for mitt romney. 38% for rick santorum. he's up by almost 30,000 votes. ron paul, newt gingrich, way behind. 12% for ron paul. 7% for newt gingrich. let's take a look in arizona where we also project mitt romney is the winner with 48%, a significant win over rick santorum with only 26%. 16% for newt gingrich, only 8% for ron paul. arizona, very important, all 29 delegates, winner take all in arizona. romney. let's go to john king, and let's take a closer look at how mitt romney managed to pull off two important wins. >> we can look at both states. we'll start with the exit polling. here is one reason mitt romney

won, a little more than half of the electorate in michigan were men tonight. governor romney winning narrowing over santorum, splittal the man vote, 39% to 37%. 48% of the electorate in michigan, women. governor romney with a six-point reg. the gender gap an important part of the win tonight. the most important issue in michigan, 55% of primary voters said economy was the big issue. 47% for romney, 29% for senator santorum. there, a big win on the most important issue. a key factor in romney's win in michigan tonight. let's look at more about the electorate. 60% of the electorate described as a republican. michigan, an open primary, anyone can vote. romney winning 49%. a 15% advantage over santorum. if you look, there's an interesting graphic, that

disappeared, they all disappeared. we'll come back to that and exit poll data. every now and then, the wall has a mind of its own. how did it play out in the state? michigan first, a lot of purple. if you look at the map from a distance, you would think santorum who is purple covered michigan. except romney is doing well where the people live, in the major population centers. if you look at the margin state-wide, just under 30,000 votes. governor romney lived in oakland as a child, there's the margin, most of the state-wide margin, 29,000, coming from the one county that he lived in as a child, oakland county, in the state of michigan. you pop over and pull it out, come over to the state of arizona. a more convincing win here, 48% to 26%. just shy of 80% of the vote counted, and you see across the state, wolf, that romney is sfiling in. no significant serious challenge here. as we prepare, wyoming is split up.

83% of the results coming in tonight. we'll get the official results final tomorrow night. governor romney winning wyoming. looks like he's going to carry that. santorum has four, romney came into the night with four. he'll leave the night with six. the big question, to doo the two wins tonight give romney momentum heading into the ten contest all over the map, east, west, south, and north. >> i want to go to jim acosta. he's covering rick santorum's campaign. you had a chance to catch up with him after he spoke tonight. did he give you any indication of what his plans are for the next few days? >> wolf, i asked him exactly that. he said he's moving on to tennessee and ohio. those are two states where he's doing very well, according to the latest polls in those states, and after all of the talk this evening about whether or not rick santorum missed an opportunity here, whether it was

talking about the social issues when perhaps he should have been talking about fishing the economy in a state that has been hard hit in the economy like michigan. i went up to rick santorum after his speech and asked him, are you thinking about recalibrating your message, do you think the robo call was a mistake? here is what he had to say. do you think you're going to recalibrate your message. >> it did well. >> you think the robo call was a mistake? >> i don't think it had anything to do with it. where do you go from here? >> going to tennessee and ohio. >> those states are pretty favorable to you. you're doing well in a lot of them. >> we're doing great, great. thank you.

>> are you proud of the victory, the fact you came so close to beating? >> pretty close. >> you got the resources to keep going, senator? >> and i don't know if you could hear at the very end of that sound there, we heard rick santorum say i think it's pretty clear now this is a two-person race. i want to share with you, just a few moments before i came on and was talking to you about the quick interview we got with santorum, a santorum aide came up to me and said, hey, keep in mind we're looking at the delegate math coming out of michigan. there's a chance, obviously, a long night in determining this, but there's a chance they feel that they could split the delegate vote total coming out of this state. they feel like that is as big a win in this state as if they had come out on top in the popular vote.

obviously, they're spinning this as best they can. they're looking for silver linings after what is a disappointing loss. >> that's their responsibility. they have to spin it as positively as they can, but there will be a split, no doubt, of the delegates in michigan, given the way they divide up the delegates. it won't happen in arizona where romney gets all 29 delegates. candy crowley is standing by at mitt romney's headquarters right now.4>tdñ they must be totally relieved, pretty happy, but it was a relatively thin margin in his home state of michigan, candy. >> it was. but i have to tell you that i spoke to someone close to the romney campaign and said, boy, you know, you barely squeaked by, three, four, five points. he said, what would you be saying if we lost three, four, five points? it was a monumental loss. they're happy to take it at this point. how happy are they? mitt romney said, a long time to thank the folks in the room. these are campaign workers the

folks who knocked on doors. some of the high officials in michigan, and there were many who supported him. obviously, they're quite grateful. as for his margin of win, mitt romney told the crowd he's quite satisfied. >> and in this room are the people who knocked on the doors and made the calls and went to the polls. and it made an enormous difference. we didn't win by a lot but we won by enough and that's all that counts. >> now, of course, the problem in this primary race all along is that there's really been no big mo, as george bush the father called it, momentum coming out of a particular race. almost every time we thought someone had momentum, they fell in the next contest. next week, super tuesday, and the romney campaign knows full well that you're only as good as the election in front of you. wolf? >> he's not going to waste any time, candy, i'm told. tomorrow morning he's going to be speaking in toledo, ohio. that's not far away from detroit.

he's speaking at a rally there. he's obviously very concerned about ohio one week from today. >> sure. he absoluty is, but they're aware here as we all are that these polls tend to reflect the moment. the next couple of days, as certainly the romney campaign will be, they do expect to get bounce in the polls in that state in particular, but there are a lot of states out there, and they need to do better than just ohio. but i have to tell you, ohio is pretty much the crown jewel of next tuesday. so that's where they're going to concentrate a lot of their attention. >> and in november, ohio will be critical as well. a key battleground state as we know. candy, thanks very much. it's on to super tuesday right now, and one state stands out as candy said, from the others. we're talking about the battleground state of ohio. we're going to get reaction from undecided republicans who are there who have been watching tonight's contest unfold. stay with us. we're watching the elections unfolding right now.

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well, the race now moves on to super tuesday. one critical state, battleground state, ohio. that's where tom foreman is tonight, in columbus, ohio, with a group of undecided republican voters. they have been watching and listening to all of the candidates make speeches and giving us their instant reactions. we have been playing them at the bottom of the screen. what was the reaction to governor romney talking tonight? >> anderson, this is one of the most fascinating ones to watch, how the groups respond to it. i want you to look at how these people responded when mitt romney was speaking, specifically, specifically when he went after president obama with one of his own lines, listen to this and watch the lines grow. >> he thinks he deserves a second term. he says, we can't wait, to which i say, oh, yes we can.

>> huge, huge support for that when he said -- when he attacked the yes we can line. let me talk to somebody here. did you like that line, the notion of him saying that, and if so, why? >> yes, i thought mitt finally got the difference between himself and obama, and i think he was very clear and articulate, and i loved the speech. >> when you say he finally got the difference, he's been saying a lot of this stuff. what's the difference tonight? >> he came out powerfully. he spoke with authority and conviction, and he was very true to himself. he did very well. >> do you feel he had done that before tonight? >> somewhat, but i thought he was kind of always a little bit hesitant. just this time, i thought he was very strong. i liked him tonight. >> let me reach to the fellow back here, what was your reaction to all of this, did you think strongly about romney before tonight and how do you feel now? >> not so much before tonight,

but tonight, he spoke like a winner. he won the state of michigan. he won arizona. and it seems like he feels like he's on a roll. and he's just going to start rolling and just keep going. >> you know, anderson, this is something that we were talking about earlier tonight with everybody here. many people here -- show me your hands, a lot of your, you're undecided, a lot of you were in favor of santorum, show me how many raised your hands when you said you liked santorum earlier. a lot of people, anderson, but i will tell you this, when we were polling people throughout the process, time and again, what this group said was they thought mitt romney could win, and you can hear the talk now. after hearing him tonight, after all four speeches, clearly, clearly, anderson, i'm telling you, the lines jumped all over the place for romney. a lot of support, a lot of excitement, not nearly so much for the other candidates. >> let's take a look at some sof

the reactions to what rick santorum had to say. >> absolutely. rick santorum in particular, one of the best lines was a general, let's stand up for the basic principles of what republicans believe in, conservatives believe in. watch by comparison how the lines moved for him. >> are we a country that believes in big government, do we believe in the smart and elite in this country to manage us, or do you believe in free people and a free economy and building a great america from the bottom up? what do you say? >> so, let me ask you this, i'm going to work some of the back of the crowd. what did you think of santorum before tonight and what did you think of him now? >> i'm still stuck in not liking him. >> not liking him? >> right. >> why? >> he comes off kind of phony to me. i've never liked his politics.

the piece about the education just really bothered me last week when he talked about education not being important for low income kids, and then tonight, he spoke of his mother having an education, himself having an education, his wife having an education, and i think education and vocational programs are important for young people to succeed in the american dream in this country. >> someone here who is a tea party supporter? in the back row there? let me slip down the row and ask you a question about this. if you're a tea party supporter in all of this, mitt romney -- rick santorum was one of the people that a lot of very conservative people are leaning toward. do you feel differently tonight after watching his speech, seeing the showing in arizona and michigan? >> i do. i like rick santorum. i really was very undeseeded on what i thought about him versus

romney, and i still believe romney has a better chance of winning, but i do like santorum. he comes off as being more of a family man. >> you raise a key question that we have seen in focus groups all over the country as we have traveled around. this basic question of what is more important to you right now? voting for somebody who you believe in or voting for somebody whom you believe can win? >> i want somebody who can win. i think that's what it boils down to. i think it's important for the republican base to rally around somebody who can take obama down. >> even if that means turning your back on somebody who you would rather have on the job? >> i don't know that any of the candidates are far enough from my believes to say one is a betrayal of my believes. i think elements of every one of them are parts that i believe in, and all of them have flaws. for me, if any of them rises up

as a candidate that can take obama out, that's the guy i am going to support. >> do we have a ron paul supporter? let me splip past you. what about you? some portion of the group, i want to point out, when we were asking the questions, there was some portion of the group, about a quarter of you, maybe, who said most of you said whoever gets the nomination for the republicans you'll back. about a quarter, if i'm not mistaken, we're asking the folks from southern baptist university, who said they would not necessarily support the candidate if it wasn't their choice. i'm guessing some of the ron paul people are among that, maybe. how did you feel after what you saw tonight? >> well, i really disliked the environmental aspects of the other candidates, especially when it comes to energy usage for america. just fraking is not a viable action, and that for me is -- i

couldn't vote -- >> based on that, can you -- would you simply stick with ron paul all the way through or not vote or refuse to vote for the candidate? what would you do? >> ron paul all the way through seems very sincere with what he said, and everything he stands for. the other candidates -- >> i'm talking about the general election, once you get past the lection, let's say he doesn't get the nomination, can you bring yourself to vote for mitt romney or will you not vote or vote for barack obama? >> i might have to vote for a third party. in that circumstance. i dislike obama's socialist tendencies. >> i think he might run as an independent if he doesn't get the republican nomination. >> i want to take a wide picture here and show you something else, which i think you'll find very interesting.

show your hands here for a minute, how many of you think this is still a four -- put your hands up really high. how many of you think this is a four-person race for the republican nomination? is that it? one? how many of you think this is a two-person race? and i'm presumeing the two you mean are rick santorum and mitt romney. do you think at this point that anybody should drop out? >> i can't say that anyone should drop out. because if they do, then that will, i think, overwhelmingly throw the race to romney. but i think that anyone who does stay in, they're going to really have to pick up the pace, really get specific, and tell me why i should vote for them, not why i shouldn't vote for the other

guy. >> all right, we're going to come back with our group later on, and we're going to show you the metamorphosis that has happened here. everybody came in undecided. some leaning one way and some the other, but there was definite movement as all of the speeches were made, as we watched the results come in. i can tell you there are dirnlss in the group from what we saw just a few hos ago. later on, we're show you what that is. >> i appreciate all of the folks for participating in this. we'll check in a little later on with you. let's go over to some of our analysts here. david gergen, gloria borger. it's interesting to hear their perspectives and saying no matter what, they want somebody who can win against president obama. >> we have seen that time and time again in all of the primaries. the undecided gentleman who said i want someone who can win. and mitt romney, the central premises of his campaign has been that he is the electable

candidate. and that's what he's gone about proving this evening, by winning the state of michigan. i would argue that he still has problems with his base, but what he has to do heading into super tuesday is continue to prove the premise that he's electable by winning somewhere in the midwest, which would of course be the state of ohio that you folks were talking about. but i would also argue that he can't write off the south. and that there are a burch of southern primaries coming up. i was corresponding with a republican strategist who said haley barbour is probably on speed dial, very powerful in the south, mitt romney could use him. and as much as endorsements matter, he could get out his political operative to help romney win somewhere in the south. this is part of proving that he's the electable republican. >> there were a couple things for romney, but i thought what was interesting is coming out of

the victory tonight, he gave a much better speech than he has been. >> and they responded to that. >> they responded to that. you know, there was a time between south carolina and florida he changed his debate coach, and he was much, much better in florida. i have to wonder, does he have a new speechwriter. there was a pithy phrase that i thought for the first time captured in a few words what he's trying to say he's about. more jobs, less debt, smaller government. and he repeated that another time. that kind of approach, if he could finally get through to people about what he's about and have this sense of being a winner as he came out of tonight in michigan and arizona, you could begin to get the things moving. and alex's point, he could get himself back on track. >> he had a teleprompter tonight, but he didn't say -- i don't want to say robotic, but reading the teleprompter as much. >> i thought he was more -- there were a series of things working. >> ten states voting at one time.

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important win for mitt romney tonight in arizona and michigan. he desperately needed to win michigan to keep this momentum going. it look said like he's doing really well in wyoming. we won't get the final results of the wyoming caucuses until tomorrow. as important after the races tonight were, a week from today, super tuesday, ten really important contests. >> this is about delegates at the moment. if some candidate can run off a bunch of wins, maybe it becomes momentum, but the race is at 1144. that's what you need to clinch the nomination. romney started at 127, you see gingrich, santorum, paul. factor in arizona.

santorum will get some, we estimate a third. that could change a bit. romney gets them all in arizona. you see him beginning to pull open the delegate lead. 176, we need 1144. let's take a look ahead. the wyoming caucus. we have most of the vote. let's assign that to romney. a few proportionately may go to senator santorum and paul. and then the washington caucus on saturday, we're going to project ron paul, a hypothetical, that would be his first win if that happens. others will pick up a few delegates proportionately. now we come to here, this is next tuesday and all of the country is voting, new england states, the south, the midwest states. this is hypothetical, if you're watching at home, you won't like some of this. gingrich could come back and win oklahoma, win tennessee, and his

home state of georgia, he would jump up into second place. if you look at the polling, let's say the polling holds and we give this to senator santorum, bring it purple, there we go. tennessee, a recent poll, santorum ahead there. let's change this one here, make it a santorum state. if you do that, senator santorum will start moving up. this is the biggest battle ground. we're going to assign michigan to romney, romney and paul on the ballot -- >> you mean virginia. >> yes. thank you, ohio, if romney wins it, he would pull open a big lead, what would happen if speaker gingrich won it? if it's not romney, people think it could be santorum. romney would be in the lead, but santorum would jump to second place. there are a number of scenarios as you play this out, it's who can win the bulk of the ten, does somebody win three, somebody win three, or does one candidate gets momeantm? i'm going to leave this up for now. imagine if super tuesday played out like that, santorum would have momentum as you move on. then you have a relatively light

day on march 10th. kansas would be the prize there. gingrich, i'll play it over to romney for the sake of argument there, then you come here. these are two states, super tuesday is going to have a huge impact on the race. the question being this, can speaker gingrich come back? win georgia big, find someplace else to win? if that's the case, you have to say he would be a major factor when you get to alabama and mississippi. if he's not, if he has a bad super tuesday, what happens down here? gloria mentioned this, this is the strength of the republican party in a national election. romney won florida. you don't see him right now winning the deep south states, as you consider them, after that, who else is viable? santorum, gingrich, are they all still in, and what happens down here? after that, after march 13th, these are going to go to gingrich. after march 13th, missouri voted in a beauty contest, but has to vote delegates, you see arkansas, louisiana, super tuesday will say a lot about if

this goes on deep into march, into april, conceivably into may, who is viable. >> play it out because this magic number of 1,144 is possible. you play it all out through the summer, nobody gets that magic number. >> watch me play this out again. this is based on earlier projections when gingrich was doing well. i'm going to leave the states right now, let's play it out, louisiana, if we have essentially a regional breakdown, santorum winning in the midwest, gingrich winning in the south, you keep playing it out, romney winning, this gave romney the sate of wisconsin, play out more, romney gets new england, this gives santorum his home state of pennsylvania. let's fill it out, more quickly, again, if you're watching at home, you're saying my state isn't going to go that way, this is a hypothetical. romney has done in the west, boom, he did win there.

under that scenario, romney just made the finish line. we're at the end, utah. just got to the finish line at the end. but pick a state, pick a state, go on, let's say that goes another way, santorum wins that, that's only ten delegates. you get to the convention ten delegates shy, you can cut a deal. let's say california went another way, that would pull out a bunch of delegates there. as you do the hypothetical, this is why next tuesday is so important. ten states on the ballot will determine who has viability as you move on into the other southern states. will everybody stay in? if they stay in, are they viable? next news, especially in such a volatile, unpredictable race, is crucial. >> gingrich said he needs to win georgia. if he doesn't win georgia, he's in deep, deep trouble. we're watch georgia, ohio, tennessee, all of these states, peter is in michigan right now. peter, you have been covering this from day one. political momentum is very, very important right now.

what are you seeing? >> yeah, i mean, this is what john was just talking about. if romney does have some measure of momentum, it almost hit the wall on super tuesday. i have been on the phone with republicans in all ten of the states for the last several days asking who is up, who is down? there's no one with an across the map advantage on super tuesday. if you look at the big contests, take massachusetts off the board, romney wins there. take virginia off the board, romney wins there. the four biggest states are -- that will be contested on super tuesday are ohio, tennessee, jerja, and oklahoma. romney is probably competitive only in one of those where he can pull out a win, that's ohio. he has real problems on super tuesday, as gloria mentioned. he has not shown well in the south as he did in south carolina. he showed problems connecting with southern conservatives there. he might not have to win some of the southern states, but he has to show well because southern conservatives are the most

reliable gop voting bloc in the general election. it looks tough for romney. he might also, wolf, look for a win in idaho, perhaps. i was talking to one operative who expects the mormon vote to be north of 30%, possibly 40% in idaho. delegates are nominated by county. romney could do well out there. ohio and idaho, massachusetts and virginia look good for romney, wolf. >> virginia, only two candidates on the ballot. the other two did not get on, santorum and newt gingrich. peter, thanks very much. jessica yellin is our white house correspondent. she's been getting reaction not only from officials i assume at the white house, but other democrats as well. what are you seeing and hearing? >> hi, wolf. democrat officials, not just from the democratic national committee but also in the state and particularly ohio who are already attacking mitt romney

and focusing their fire on him. they're once again seeing him as the likely republican opponent in the general election. and their primary message, wolf, is obviously about the auto bailout in ohio. but focusing on this theme that romney is out of touch and that he is, in the words of multiple democrats, an elitist who can't connection. the reason i'm emphasizing this is time after time, i have seen the democratic national committee put out a message that they initially instigate as their attack line, and then within a week, it becomes the attack you hear from either gingrich or santorum or maybe both as their lead attack on mitt romney. whether it was over health care or jobs or mitt romney's taxes, the dnc tends to put out these attacks. it goes quiet for a while, and then you start hearing it from the other opponents. the latest attack is that mitt

romney's gaffe over time shows he's not just a gaffe machine in their wards, and a weak candidate, but this is his true nature and he's out of touch and an elitist. something you have heard before, but i'll be curious to see if the other republican candidates pick that up on the trail to super tuesday. >> a very, very intensive week. jessica, thanks. anderson, i can tellia from my own reporting that a lot of democrats in the obama re-election campaign, they certainly fear mitt romney the most among potential challengers going into a general election. >> why do you think that is? is it that lose rr most electable in their eyes? >> he polls strongest against barack obama compared to the rest in the race. his appeal was stronger earlier. it's gone more to the right, i think the whole in-fighting of the republican party. here is one big thing when you

compare the data four years ago. i do have to say it, four years ago, the democrats lifted each other up. when you look at barack obama and hillary clinton, their numbers rose. republicans are dropping. republicans need to stay focused on the economic messages. when they talk about cultural issues or social issues, they need to do it in a positive way. >> what are you hearing from the focus group and how one night of two wins for mitt romney and a decent, energized speech, they suddenly felt differently about him and viewed him as a winner. interesting how one's eye changes with a win under one candidate's belt. >> what it tells us is it underscored how difficult it has been for mitt romney to convince republicans he is the one, even with the whole electability thing. because the whole notion of him being out of touch, i think people see it, they see his gaffe, it's not just one, it's two, three, four, it's five,

it's a list, and i think in republicans' minds, that gives them pause to really believe that he is the one who can go up against barack obama, and i have to say, the anybody but romney folks, it's almost like they have been trying out for who can actually keep the spotlight in being the front runner. that's where they have all failed and that's why romney apparently is the front-runner. >> romney may have the wrong strategy. it's that obsessed with winning, generally when a party is obsessed with winning, they'll make compromises on their ideology. that's what george w. bush did in 2000. he ran as a compassionate conservative, he wanted more involvement in education. he did not run to the extreme right in the primaries. he seemed to have the eye on the prize the whole time. bill clinton, that's what he did, too. romney may have had a chance to do the same thing.

and he may have squandered it. >> i'm surprised that on the one hand, we're criticizing mitt romney for being too far right, and on the other hand, he's not getting the right, santorum is. so i think the truth is somewhere in between. romney has -- romney hasn't moved to the right that far in this primary process at all. he's still, for example, even on immigration, the candidate who never gives a speech where he doesn't talk about immigration, doesn't say legal immigration, a good thing, expand. >> extreme candidate. he used to be for the dream act, for comprehensive immigration reform. >> the dream act is not a good idea for a lot of republicans. >> he used to support it. >> nevertheless, i think it's hard to have it both ways that he's on the one hand, so extreme, but it doesn't show up, even in the general election surveys if you ask if he's too conservative, no. i thought the interesting story from the focus group was strength.

we've always said for the past year, the last election may have been about hope and change, but this is about strength and certainty because the world is coming apart, economy, foreign policy, and this group saw, that was a strong guy. that's not something we have heard up to this point about mitt romney. i'm not sure it was that much of a speech as it was he won. he went into a tough state, he went into a state where he had stood on an issue, on the bailout, for example, against some of the sentiment in the state, and he stuck to his guns and he won. >> stand by to hear from mitt romney about the double victory tonight. it may have been one of the best primary night speeches for him yet. we'll play some of that. [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first.

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dana beige is in pontiac, michigan. she's got more news happening

now. they completed the tally over there, dana? >> it just happened moments ago. we have been behind the scenes here. we want to show you, this is really democracy in action. joe is here, he's going to tell us what the final result are, 100% reporting here. >> we are 50% for mitt romney and 28% for rick santorum, all 541 precincts have reported and we're going to transfer that to the secretary of state and that will be available on the website. >> and kim here is going to hit send, right? >> right. >> there you see the results officially going back to the state, and this shows you, the big, big margin exactly why mitt romney did so well in this state today. >> oakland, a hugely important county in michigan. thanks for the good reporting. let me play you a clip of what the winner of arizona and mishish mish, romney, had to say

to his supporters tonight. >> great victory in arizona tonight. and thank you, michigan. what a win. this is a big night. thank you, guys. you know, a week ago, it was just a week ago that the pundits and the pollsters, they were ready to count us out, but across michigan and arizona, i kept on meeting moms and dads and students and grandparents, and they were concerned about what is happening to this great country of ours, and i was confident we could come together today and take a giant step toward a brighter future. so tonight, their efforts have brought our cause a great victory and we celebrate with people across these states. thank you. now, tonight is also particularly special for me because this is a place where i was born. this is the place where i was raised. my mom and dad lived many years

here and love this great state, and i know that michiganders in the room, we consider you all family. thank you so much for your help. and in this room are the people who knocked on the doors and made the calls and went to the polls, and it made an enormous difference. we didn't win by a lot, but we won by enough, and that's all that counts. and by the way, in arizona, special thank you to governor jan brewer there and senator john mccain. they were tireless, particularly john mccain, he's been all over the country helping. what a hero, thank you, senator. thank you, governor. they're out there. we've got two sons out there that are celebrating with them. the great thing about having so many in our family, we can cover almost every race. so super tuesday will be stretched, but we'll find a way. our campaign, as you know, is about restoring the promise of america. last week, i unveiled a very

bold economic plan that's going to jump start the economy and it's going to get michiganders back to work, get americans more jobs they're crying out for and we'll have less debt and smaller government and i'm going to deliver on more jobs, less debt, and smaller government. we have to hear that day in and day out. more jobs, less debt, smaller government. you know, there are a lot of people who were say figure you're running for office, you can't speak honestly to the american people. well, we did, and i will, and because this is the decisive moment, i believe this is a time that requires real leadership in the country. times are tough. we need leaders who will live with integrity, have the courage to tell the truth, and have the experience to get our economy back on track. that's the kind of leader i aspire to be. that's the kind of leader i will be if i'm president of the united states.

our campaign -- our campaign is about more than just replacing a president. it's about restoring america's promise. from generation to generation, americans have always known that the future would be brighter and better. americans have always believed in a tomorrow full of possibility and prosperity. that's what it means to be the land of opportunity. in america, you know if you work hard, you can build a better life. if you eteach your kids the right kind of values and help them make the right choices in life, you know their future will be prospering and security. and that deep confidence of a better tomorrow, it's a basic promise of tomorrow. today that promise is being threatened by a faltering economy, and a failed presidency. four years ago, we warned that the prenz dn prenz dnsy was no place for on the job training. today, we have the economy to prove it. >> romney, he won the contest today. as we're standing by, the social media circuit, a person monitoring what is going on, let's make her blush.

go ahead, take us what is going on. >> brooke has been monitoring it. >> romney won arizona and michigan, but like you and the panel have been talking, the margin of victory not huge. this is his home state. he recognized that specifically in his speech, this wasn't a landslide, he knew it. >> on this great state, and i know that michiganders in this room, we consider you all family. thank you so much for your help. and in this room are the people who knocked on the doors and made the calls and went to the polls and it made a difference. we didn't win by a lot, but we won by enough and that's all that matters. >> that's all that matters is what he said. we're tracking specifically romney and santorum, and of course, pay attention to the red line as i advance this. you can see it slowly begin to slope northward, which means romney's faveerability above santorum.

i want to read you three tweets about the margin of victory. miami herald reporter, mitt romney has done a good job of having little momentum from his wins. will super tuesday, ohio specifically, be different? that's one of the big questions. i advance this. this is talking about the polls here. looks like final romney margin in michigan may exceed all polls. polls were very close. so to review, in last week, mitt had momentum, then santorum, then mitt crazy. who knows what can happen giving the roller coaster. and it was the ohio news network, they're going to be covering this next tuesday. he tweets, romney spend a lot of money getting michigan voters he loved them. now welcome to ohio, the archenemy of michigan. i think he's talking football specifically, sort of the archnemesis. i want to quote something santorum picked up. he said, tonight, this is going

to be romney's night. the question was how big, and it wasn't very big. the size of the win matters. >> brooke, thanks very much for that. >> john, what do you make of tonight's final thoughts. >> i don't want to repeat that line, but it actually is true in the sense that when we're all done and counted we're going to probably have an even delegate split. delegates are awarded by congressional districts. romney might get a slight edge. but whenever governor romney is backed against a wall, had to win in florida, they did. needed to win in nevada, they did. and it didn't count except when he needed the psychological boost, and they did. you have to tip your hats to the romney campaign. i want to add an observation that has almost nothing to do with the race. olympia snowe announced she's retiring today. all of the candidates running for president are having a hard time convincing the republican coalition they're the leader.

this is the party in the middle of a fascinating transition that is being accelerated by the obama presidency, but none of the current generation quite fit with what is happening in their own party. >> a fascinating night, olympia snowe leaving. >> she said partisan politics makes it very difficult to get things done. >> her state is a very different place now than it was two orthree years ago. >> a pivotal night, anderson. two weeks ago, mitt romney's campaign went into the ditch when he lost the three elections. and i think he showed resilience. he came back, won the debate, which is an important turning point. and even though it wasn't a big victory, turning back to santorum, it did three things, he got out of the ditch, he blunted santorum's momentum, an thirdly, he's turned it into a divide and conk. er. he has ten contests, he can get

at least four. if he can get ohio, he'll have a big super tuesday. >> mitt romney avoided a huge crisis. his campaign didn't end tonight. it's going to continue. i would argue if he lost michigan, we would have been saying can this candidacy continue. the interesting thing about the republicans that john was talking about and we talked about earlier, this is a different party. they're acting like a bunch of democrats because they're not sure where they are, and the party is split wide open. you have the tea partiers, the establishment republicans, the insurgents, and they have to come around to feeling comfortable with their candidate. mitt romney was not the likeliest person to become their nominee. i think he is now. >> there's a week between now and super tuesday. here's a couple things i'll be looking forward to seeing. i would have loved to own some

of the television stations in ohio and tennessee because they're going to be spending millions and millions of dollars. super pacs, and all of them have super pacs. you're not going to be able to buy commercials in some of the battleground states looking forward to super tuesday. that's one thing i'm looking at. i under what if, what if there had been that super tuesday debate this thursday that had been canceled? they were going to televise it. how that might have affected super tuesday. >> it would have been possibly a different race. no way to know. our coverage continues. super tuesday, just one week away. we're going to have full, live coverage, of course. piers morgan is next. for everyone at cnn, thanks very much. piers starts now. [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady.

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